One Week Into MFP

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jlong7774
jlong7774 Posts: 64 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hello,

My name is Jim. I started My Fitness Pal a week ago and so far so good. Although my weight has fluctuated I feel like I have a good, structured plan that allows me to keep track of what I eat and help me loose weight. I like how some of the food that I eat automatically comes up when I do a search. When entering my exercise it appears my calories burned seem higher than what the actual machine says. Therefore I have been adjusting my calories burned to what I think is a more reasonable number.

Jim

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  • msqdpie
    msqdpie Posts: 92 Member
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    Welcome! and Warning......This Site has some of the Best People and Info Ever!
  • mrandolph69
    mrandolph69 Posts: 197 Member
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    Welcome, Jim. Concerns about MFP's calorie estimation for exercises are common. You might want to consider getting a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM). I got a Polar FT7 a little over a month ago and love it. It shows you an estimation of the calories you burned during a workout based on your sex, height, weight, heart rate and time. Because it is tailored to you and your workout it is presumably much more accurate than MFP's (understandably) one-size-fits-all estimation. BTW, MFP is consistently 2 to 2.5 times higher in its estimations than my HRM so I go with the HRM. Good luck!
  • H_Factor
    H_Factor Posts: 1,722 Member
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    good luck to you on your journey. glad that you are already finding some success.

    as for exercise calories, as someone mentioned, getting a HRM with a chest strap is going to be the most accurate measure. most folks recommend a Polar (I do)...but if you don't need all of the bells and whistles of the FT7, you can get a cheaper FT4 that is perfect for telling you calories burnt.

    the MFP exercise estimates vary (and for me, they varied from somewhat similar to what my HRM showed to being a lot higher). part of the problem is that MFP cannot determine your effort and I'm pretty sure that MFP estimates are based on near max effort (something most folks cannot do for the duration of the exercise). machines are also not entirely reliable.

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